Appellation:
Shenandoah Valley
Winemaker Notes:
La Mesa's Barbera Blanc is an exceptional food-pairing white wine made from our red Barbera grapes using special press cycles for a rapid extraction of the white juice with almost no time on the red skins, fermented in "Apollo" egg-shaped tanks like all our white wines. Our red Barbera grapes used for the Barbera Blanc were harvested on August 26, at a Brix of 23.0 and pH 3.1.
Grape clusters went straight into our bladder press which has a special 360-degree screen where they were rapidly whole-cluster pressed in a <20 minute programmed cycle. Almost all juice was colorless; only the very last press cycles had a hint of rosé color, which was separated. The juice was inoculated with our chosen yeast and fermented in Apollo tanks, which have the advantage of creating a convection of gas that constantly stirs the juice and solids that would otherwise sit at the bottom, to extract maximum flavors. 2 weeks into cool fermentation nearly all color pigments dropped out, leaving a white wine. No oak added, the wines were cold-stabilized outdoors for several weeks in our chilly winter temperatures. Bottled up early March 2023 for you to enjoy fresh and fruity.
Vineyard Notes:
Our Estate Barbera grows on a steep hillside at 2,000-foot altitude in the granitic and volcanic soil of our vineyard estate in the Shenandoah Valley of the Sierra Foothills. It is grafted on special drought-tolerant rootstock which allows it to dig deep in this soil for water and we dry farm it. It thrives in the warm daytime breezes from the Central Valley and cool Sierra evenings, a 30-degree swing in temperature, with a climate similar to the best-growing region in Italy for this grape.
